Google Maps, Google Search, Google Assistant will show you Covid-19 vaccine slot availability, pricing at each center

Google, ever since the pandemic began last year, has been partnering with various governmental and non-governmental agencies in India to showcase authentic information about the Covid-19, its spread, active cases and other resources in India. Then in March this year as the Indian government began the Covid-19 vaccination drive in the country, Google started showing Covid-19 vaccination centers in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Google Maps, Google Assistant and Google Search. Today, the tech giant announced more updates to these services in India.

Google today announced that starting this week, Google Search, Google Assistant and Google Maps will show more information for over 13,000 Covid-19 vaccination locations across the country. This information will include details such as availability of appointment slots at each center, vaccines and doses offered (dose 1 or dose 2), expectations for pricing (paid or free) and link to the Indian government’s CoWIN website for booking a vaccination slot.

Also read: Looking for a smartphone? Check Mobile Finder here.

Google says that all of this information will be powered by real-time data from the Indian government’s CoWIN APIs. The tech giant also said that the above information will automatically show up when users search for vaccine centers near them. Alternatively, these details will also show up when users search for the above-mentioned information such as Covid-19 vaccination pricing or Covid-19 vaccine availability in any specific area across Google Search, Google Maps and Google Assistant.

In addition to English, users can also search in eight Indian languages. The list includes Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati, and Marathi. Google said that it will continue to partner closely with the Indian government’s CoWIN team to extend this functionality to all vaccination centers across India.

“As people continue to seek information related to the pandemic to manage their lives around it, we remain committed to finding and sharing authoritative and timely information across our platforms,” Hema Budaraju, Director, Google Search said while announcing the news.

Notably, the update comes months after Google announced that in addition to showing 2,500 testing centers on Google Search and Google Maps, it will be sharing the locations of over 23,000 vaccination centers nationwide, in English and eight Indian languages. At the same time, Google had also said that on YouTube the company was surfacing authoritative information in a set of playlists, about vaccines, preventing the spread of Covid-19, and facts from experts on Covid-19 care.